2013 Winter X Games slopestyle finals

Saturday at Winter X Games was a game changer for slopestyle competitions. On his first run Shaun White tossed the first slopestyle backside 1440 triple cork but rode away with a heavy hand drag leaving him with a score of only 71. The next triple went to 18-year old Max Parrot whose jump line included a Cab 900 double cork, frontside 1080 double cork, double Wildcat, and backside triple cork, stomped clean earning a score of 90. Mark McMorris was last in the drop-in order and put together the same jump line as Max but went deep into the landing of the final table, riding out for score of 94.66, putting him in first.

What did Mark feel after that first run? “Relief,” he said. “ I didn’t have the best practice runs so I’m happy to put that one down.”

Max clearly wanted to take the lead and on his second run repeated his same jump line but this time went for a backside 1620 triple cork coming up just short.

After coming off early on some of his rail tricks on his final run Max knew Mark was untouchable and gave up halfway down the jumps. Shaun fell on his switch backside 1080 attempts off the second jump on his second and third runs leaving him in fifth. Seppe Smits eventually got his triple cork off the last jump but reverted and ended up in third.

By this third run Mark knew that he had the win but stepped up his run adding a Cab double cork 1260 on his second jump. That left Mark with a score of 98, the highest ever snowboard slopestyle score.

“I came here to the do the Cab 12,” Mark said. When asked about Shaun his attitude seemed to have softened compared to his earlier comments about Shaun’s slopestyle game. “Shaun has all the tricks,” Mark said. “He’s just getting back into it.”

On the women’s side Jamie Anderson took her second straight X Games gold slope medal. While many of the other women struggled to complete a run Jamie landed a solid first run with a boardslide melon 270 off the cannon box to backside 180. On the second jump she stomped a Cab 720 nose grab to switch backside 540 giving her a score of 93 that took her to gold.

Spencer O’Brien linked up a solid second run including a sweet toe-edge frontside 720 that put her temporarily in second until she was bumped out by Sarka Pancochova’s third run. On the jumps Sarka put together a backside 540 to switch backside 180 followed by a frontside 360 and big backside 720.

Although she ended up in last place Aimee Fuller was perhaps the only rider who could have taken the win from Jamie. While most of the ladies took it easy on the first two hits Aimee went for corked backside 720s off the first hit. On her first run she landed a solid backside seven and almost came around on a double backflip off the second jump. If she put the line together Aimee would have definitely pushed Jamie to step up her trick selection, but Aimee fell on her first hit of the next two runs.